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Due to the construction of underground structures and hazardous waste storages, understanding and modelling of water flow through concrete has become a major topic for life-span analyses. The water retention curve (WRC) is an essential unsaturated soil function, which can be determined not only for soil samples, but also for other porous media. This paper deals with the determination of drying water retention curve for six different concrete mixtures that provide a substantial characteristic for the investigation and modelling of seepage through the pores of concrete. According to the complex pore system of the concrete, the bimodal function of van Genuchten (1980) and Fredlund and Xing (1994) models were used for curve fitting. The fitted curves were used to estimate the permeability function using Fredlund et. al (1994) model.

Minimizing the production energy and resources consumption are the key principle for engineering sustainability. In the case of concrete structures, this concept can be achieved by the use of materials in the most efficient way considering in the mix design the optimal mechanical and durability properties. The substitution of ordinary Portland cement for other supplementary cementitious materials is assessing the possibility of enhancing the sustainability and decreasing the environmental impact of concrete. Mass concrete is rich in cementitious materials which results in high temperature within the concrete, hence several hazards such as cracking or temperature differences between the interior and the surface of concrete could be prevented. An experimental study evaluated on several one cubic meter sized concrete elements in which during the primary phase of hydration, the temperature variation is recorded in several location offsets with respect to time. Thermal variations results are analyzed in accordance with the cement type, CO2 emission production of cement, compressive strength, water tightness, drying shrinkage and rapid chloride migration coefficient. The results indicate that slag cement CEM III/B 32.5, that incorporates highest amount of slag, ensured improved mechanical, thermal and durability properties in comparison with ordinary Portland cement CEM I 32.5.